The Washington Nationals fell to the San Francisco Giants in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, giving us all the NLCS matchup that we collectively dreaded. There were a multitude of factors that led to the ousting of the Nats from the postseason. The bats fell silent, Matt Williams was a disaster, etc. One of those reasons was not Bryce Harper.
There were multiple points throughout the season when Harper’s standing with the Nationals was in question. At one point, a scout suggested that they might trade him in the offseason, as his attitude was a distraction for manager Matt Williams. This was in addition to recommendations throughout the baseball world, from fans and analysts alike, that the Nats should consider sending Harper down to the minors to work on some technical adjustments.
To an extent, the questions about Harper’s overall performance in 2014 are understandable, as ridiculous as sending him to the minors actually sounds. An injury early in the season limited him to just 100 games, missing all of May and appearing in just one June contest. He still turned in some respectable numbers, thanks to a strong performance down the stretch, slashing .273/.344/.423/.768 for the year. He hit 13 home runs, 10 in the final two months of the season, and knocked in 32 runs, finishing with a 1.3 WAR in those 100 games.
There are no shortage of narratives that follow Bryce Harper around on a daily basis. Pick any number of: “he doesn’t respect the game”, “he’s a distraction”, “he has a bat attitude”, “he’s injury prone”, etc. Whatever. Kid knows he’s good. That’s what it comes down to. He plays the game with an edge, and it’s fun to watch. As such, though, he’s developed no shortage of doubters in his brief Major League career. During the National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants, he took some steps in silencing at least a large portion of them.
Harper did perform well down the stretch, so his NLDS performance may not come as quite as much of a surprise. He hit .279 in August and .289 in September, OPSing .802 between the two months. His mechanics, which were a major issue that led to his struggles throughout the season, settled down and we saw a more consistent swing from Harper. And that has translated to some enormous success in the playoffs for the budding star. Which allowed him to do this:
And this:
Also, most recently, this:
Harper represented one of the only sources of offense for a Nationals team that completely flamed out against a strong Giants staff. It’s difficult to make much of such a small sample size, for better or for worse, especially because he was overswinging a bit trying to do too much at the plate, with his team scuffling so badly. Which is why his three home runs for the series resulted in only three RBIs. But he absolutely showed us something in this NLDS, and it’s something that should have us all extremely excited to continue watching Bryce Harper develop and play the game of baseball for the next several years. He’s a gamechanger.
Maybe next year he’ll hit higher than sixth in the order.
